After Alfonsen finished with Human Rights, I handed him a stack of dots—the Magna Carta, the U.S. stitution, and the Bill hts. His eyes widened when he saw the stack, but to his credit, he dove in with only a few pints.

  Every time he finished one, we’d sit down, usually over a cup of tea for him and coffee for me, and chat about it. He asked some sharp questions, clearly trying to make sense of these new ideas pared to what he knew from his kingdom.

  When we moved on to more philosophical stuff, the debates got pretty heated. He’d furrow his brow and argue against anything that didn’t fit his worldview. But something ged—his speech got less stiff, and he even smiled occasionally. Seeing him loosen up, even just a little, felt like a win, even if he was still skeptical about most of what he read.

  During this time, Mahya and I visited many wholesalers in Beijing and bought most of our list. We both put aside twenty thousand euros and purchased merdise with the rest. After one of our shopping trips, I returned with an ample supply of cat and dog food—I learned my lesson.

  Rue wao taste the food. He immediately spat it out, turned on the faucet with telekinesis, rinsed his mouth, and yelled in our minds, “Yikes!”

  The four of us ughed.

  Lis gave me two thumbs up and said telepathically, “Whatever you’re doing with the boy, it’s w. He sounds almost normal.”

  For a sed, I thought he meant Rue and was utterly fused, but then I saw him looking at Alfonsen and uood.

  Lis and Mahya fiheir project. It turned out to be a Magitech device, so I could access all my eleic files oernal drive Mahya had built for me in a mana world. I couldn’t tain my excitement ahanking both of them until they finally told me to shut up; Mahya also hit the bay head for emphasis.

  “What are the ces you’ll build me something I listen to music with?” I asked Lis.

  He thought for a moment. “I’ll try, but first, I o build Rue an E-foil. I promised him.”

  We finished all our affairs in Beijing and boarded an express train to Xi’an. Alfonsen was thrilled when he heard we weren’t flying there; he still felt unfortable with pnes.

  Our first stop was the Terracotta Army, and the sheer scale of it left us all gobsmacked. Row after row of a warriors, each with a unique face, stood guard in eerie silehe peanut gallery didn’t even pin about seeing things that were buried underground. I think the number of the terracotta warriors stuhem into silence.

  We also visited the City Walls, Pagoda, Muslim Bazaar, Luoyang Longmen Grottoes & Shaolin Temple, and Mt. Hua. After the sightseeing, we rented a car and drove to the Gate. It was anh mana world. I shook my head. They were popping everywhere. To lift my spirit—or that was the excuse—I found two workshops we hadn’t done before.

  Table Tennis PyingSeal Carving CssI think we ged the worldview of the table tennis instructor—or, more precisely, Lis and Mahya did. They did nothing crazy or acrobatic; they just hit the ball bad forth so fast and strong that it was invisible. The only way to track it was through the sharp pong sounds every time they hit it.

  The workshops took two days, and we tinued on our ese trip. We took the train to Si and visited the Jiuzhaigou valley for three days, during which we also checked the Gate—the same high mana world as Xi’an. After that, we visited the panda bears. Mahia fell in love with them and tried to pn how to steal one and make it her familiar. Lis and I had to vince her for over an hour to give up the idea. She only agreed to drop it after we pointed out its size—repeatedly.

  We went to see the Leshan Giant Buddha, Dujiangyan Irrigation System, Shunan Bamboo Forest, and Langzhong A City. We enjoyed all the sights, and for a ge, the peanut gallery had nothiive to say. It was already two out of twress.

  I found some workshops for us, aended all of them.

  Bamboo Painting LessonHalf-Day gdu Cooking Css with Local Market VisitHalf-Day ese Bun Cooking Css with Local Spice Market VisitPrivate Si Cooking Css including Local Wet Market VisitHalf Day Private gdu Traditional Guqin one of us got a point for the Guqin css, and I felt vindicated. I told them musical instruments take time, and now they k, too. For a minute, I sidered saying, ‘I told you so,’ but held back—barely.

  We all enjoyed Si cooking, so we bought a lot of food for our Ste. The bellboy at the hotel kept ing up to our room t us more and more takeaways from various restaurants, and every time he visited us, his eyes got bigger and bigger and bigger. At some point, we took pity on him and bought the food in person. At every restaurant, we asked for a food order for a party of thirty people. We would load everything on my bicycle trailer, find a quiet er, and store everything. That was how we toured for a week, fog mainly on food.

  Mahiya kept saying, “We’re going to eat so well; I ’t wait.”

  We flew to Hunan to avoid spending thirteen hours oraie Alfonsen’s protests. The moment we nded, we headed straight to Zhangjiajie National Forest Park. The park was unique, with those strange narrow and high peaks that looked like immeoh rising from the ground. We discreetly checked the Gate tucked away in a secluded er. This oo a world with medium mana, level 42.

  “How about this one?” Mahya asked.

  “You want to travel it?”

  “Not necessarily, just asking,” she replied with a slight shrug.

  “Didn’t we agree on thirty-something?”

  “Yeah … just a thought,” she said, waving her hand dismissively. “Thirty-something is better. Fet I said anything.”

  Alfonsen, who had been quietly listening to us, finally spoke up. “Why do you sult among yourselves and not with Lis?”

  “Lis wants to visit a Genomey world,” I expined. “And we’re looking food medium-mana option.”

  “Are you not a perma group?” he asked, looking and sounding utterly fused.

  I sighed. “No. Lis is much older, more experienced, and strohan we are. He’ll be bored with us,” I said, my voice tinged with sadness. “He’s moving on to a more challenging world, and we’re looking for somethiler.”

  Alfonseated before asking, “Is there a possibility for me to apany you?”

  I tilted my head, studying his expression. “Don’t you want to go back to Austria, cross the Gate you came through, and wait for it to ge back to Leylos?” I asked, curious about his decision.

  “No,” he said with a slight shake of his head. “I enjoy traveling with you, and I have no iion of rushing to return home.”

  “But how will you find a Gate that leads to your world if you walk away from a known Gate?” I asked, genuinely ed.

  “My family insisted on my memorizing numerous Gate s, each sisting of ten or mates. I firmly believe that, at some juncture, I will enter a world in one and be able to return to my world.”

  I g Mahya and asked her telepathically. “What do you think?”

  “I don’t care,” she replied with a shrug. “At first, he made me ugh, but tely, he improved a lot. If he doesn’t revert to his old ways, I have no problem with him joining us.”

  “Okay,” I said, turning back to Alfonsen. “You join us.”

  His face lit up with a huge smile—he practically beamed. “Thank you. Thank you very much. I appreciate it greatly,” he said with an almost iious enthusiasm.

  The drive from Hunan to Guilin was only four hours long, so we took a train. In Guilin, we visited the Reed Flute Cave o the Gate: anh mana world, 63. We boarded a cruise on the Li River to Yangshuo. The cruise was a fantastic experience, with breathtaking views. Rue had no problem with the big boat and sat and looked at the view as fasated as the rest of us.

  At some point, Alfonsen said, “It is indeed a privilege to have been born solely to withis.” We all nodded, including Rue.

  In Yangshuo, roached the Gate, and the sed Lis touched it, everything ged. His eyes lit up, and a grin spread across his fae of those huge, unguarded smiles that lit up a room.

  I touched the Gate.

  Travelers Gate #238546952Destination: BuramnaofliaixiousStatus: IedMana level: 87Threat level: Lethal

  We looked at each other, and I smiled, too, because I was happy for him but also mencholic. The realization hit me hard—this journey was ending. I looked at Lis; his joy was tagious and made me smile, but simultaneously, a wave of sadness hit me. Our paths were about to diverge, and the thought of that hurt more than I expected.

  Lis hugged my shoulders. “Don’t look like that; I’m not leaving right now. I have things I want to finish. Let’s find a pce to park our houses.”

  Mahia approached the Gate and touched it. “I don’t uand,” she said, her brows furrowed in fusion.

  “Dragon Realm,” Lis said, his voice filled with happiness. “I’ve been looking for it for over fifty years.”

  “Are we crossing this Gate?” I asked, gng at it.

  “With Invisibility, in and out shouldn’t be a problem,” Lis replied befiving my shoulder another reassuring squeeze.

  After adding the Gate to our t, we went to find a spot to put our houses. The reality of it all started sinking in—four years of traveling together, and noere on the final stretch. The idea of this journey ing up left a knot in my stomach.

  I occasionally g Lis from the er of my eye as he walked beside me. He looked so happy and full of purpose. I uood the excitement—at some point, I po visit the dragons, too—but that didn’t make accepting it any easier. I kneould keep in touch through the Archive, and it made the separation more bearable, but it didn’t wholly chase away the sadness. As much as I tried to focus oure, I had a strong and crippling feeling that I was about to lose something very special.